In(Tension)

I sat in a Virgin America flight on the back end of a full plane only to find myself next to a man who was speaking on the phone right unto liftoff. To make things worse, he decided that turning it off was too much trouble. It enraged me because he looked coherent enough to be able to follow simple instructions. Hoping that this was the only destructive effort he had made towards this trip, I said my prayers.

To put him on the back burner of my brain, I put on my headphones and tried to catch a short nap on my hour long flight. A few minutes later, someone tapped my shoulder. I looked and found my neighbor offering me water that was being passed by our hosts. I politely declined (with a somewhat of a reformed opinion of the man), trying, once again to sleep. I woke up right after we’d landed. When I started putting my belongings together, I found that my neighbor had disposed of my empty Starbucks cup while I was asleep.

I left the flight saying a quiet goodbye to him, still unsure if I totally forgave him for compromising the safety of everyone on the plane.

So here’s a *head-shake* to a man with mismatched actions and intention. And a nod to a man I couldn’t figure out.